Racks have the power to transform your bicycle. They dramatically extend your range and allow you to bring what you need for longer trips, whether an overnighter, or multi-day journey. Racks are a passport to adventure.

Today, we are pleased to introduce two new Salsa rear rack solutions: the Alternator Rack Standard and Alternator Rack Wide.

Alternator Rack Standard

Designed for use with all Salsa frames that feature our Alternator dropouts in 135mm spacing. Currently, this includes the El Mariachi and Vaya Travel models.

I love being outside. I prefer to ride on dirt. Or snow. If I was born a hundred years earlier I might have been a polar explorer. There's a great natural world out there to see, smell, taste, listen to, and experience. Life slows down out there and the distractions we've created will disappear if you let them. Give me a backpack and let me go.

COMMENTS (20)

GM | November 12th, 2012

Very nice. I wish future Salsa rack designs would feature “interchange” compatibility. It is a pretty convenient system. The Bontrager/Trek bags and racks offer a lot options for commuters and the non bike packer. Of I know I could just buy the other guys stuff but I’d rather give the business to Salsa.

(Unless it’s a licensing thing…)

Great job Salsa - you are my number one slush fund benefactor.

Steve | November 12th, 2012

Hi Kid
I am fortunate enough to own a El mariachi and a Vaya and was wondering if these racks could fit both bikes? It would be really cool to swap them between bikes for different touring options.
Cheers

Phat Phil | November 13th, 2012

Good stuff now there is a fat bike rack. When can I get one in Canada. There’s a foot of the white stuff on the ground and it time to use the Mukluk as the commuter !!

Kid Riemer | November 14th, 2012

GM - Currently our racks are mainly designed to provide a solution for Salsa frame owners. In the future, we may be adding some racks designed to fit a wider range of bikes on the market.

Steve - Sorry, but the Alternator Rack Standard is designed specifically for the 135mm-spaced Alternator equipped frames. You would want to look at the Wanderlust Rack for your Vaya.

Phat Phil - Both Alternator Racks are in stock now at our distributor, Quality Bicycle Products. Your shop just needs to order it for you.

Thanks for the interest folks.

GM | November 14th, 2012

Hi Kid,

Thanks for your reply; “GM - Currently our racks are mainly designed to provide a solution for Salsa frame owners. In the future, we may be adding some racks designed to fit a wider range of bikes on the market.”

In all fairness I fit your description perfectly except my “Adventure by Bike” takes place in NY (Long Island). We don’t bike pack but we sure do commute, trail ride, tour and have fun with the necessity of racks and bags. If the Interchange clip system is not licensed it sure makes a lot of sense and doesn’t take much engineering resources.

I own an original Salsa 2010 Vaya (Upside Brown custom and built like stock), just purchased an end of stock new Salsa 2012 Vaya 2 (Super Orange) for myself and a Salsa 2012 Vaya 3 frame set (Charcoal) to be built up as a Vaya 2 gift for a close relative.

A Mukluk or brethren Pugsley is also in my future.

BTW, my Vaya is absolutely my most favorite bike ever and I’ve had a lot of cool bikes….

GM / Kid - If you want an adaptable QR top bag system, check out R&K’s Kickflix… they’re website ( http://www.klickfix.de/index.php?mod=14&lang=en ) sucks as I can’t link directly to products, but Velofred.com carries about anything they have… in specific check out the 0208 Carrier Adapter which is a plate OR 000BK (or anything that already has that adapater on it)

PS there’s another mating adapter to set any bag up for use with the 0208…

PPS I’ve yet to have any personal experience with either adapter, just things I’ve seen and thought would be useful. There’s at least one other competing adapter, but I can’t remember who it’s from…

Brian Hanson | December 2nd, 2012

Hello guys I’m looking for suggestions on a new chain for my 2013 Mukluk 2 yesterday Me and several guys from Tonka cycle and ski went out on our Global Fatbike ride it was a great time Jason from Tonka has the same bike as me and had a chain break two times on the ride it’s the stock KMC that comes on them I just don’t want to have to mess around with my chain on my bike in the middle of nowhere especially when it’s cold. Any suggestions or opinions on a replacement ?

Kid Riemer | December 17th, 2012

Brian - The stock KMC chain should not be an issue, but product manager Tim says if you really want to go big, check out the Wipperman chains.

Mark S | February 12th, 2013

Hi Kid, Above it mentions that to use this rack on the El Mariachi:

“Please note: a Salsa Rack-Lock seat collar is needed for frames without upper seatstay mounts, such as the El Mariachi.”.

I assume this applies to the El Mariachi Ti too, right? Is that easy to set up? Just switch out the seat collar? Thanks, Mark S

Kid Riemer | February 12th, 2013

Mark S - You are correct. And yes, it is as easy as switching out your seat collar and then mounting the struts to the Rack-Lock seat collar extension. Instructions are included with the rack, and as always, measure twice, cut once!

Becky | October 25th, 2013

Could someone please tell me how on earth I am supposed to connect my taillight to this rack? I had a Tubus Cargo rack on my LHT, and that rack had a very sensible horizontal mounting strip with appropriate holes built into it for mounting taillights. Not so this Alternator rack, much to my chagrin. It’s a pity I couldn’t use my Cargo on the Vaya Travel, but since I’m stuck with having to use this Alternator rack, I need to mount my taillight somehow. I assume I would use those two vertical bolt holes on the back, but the rack didn’t come with any additional hardware that would fit into them, and the instructions say nothing about what they are for (or, more importantly, how to mount a tailiight). Does anyone have any information that would be of assistance?

Phat Phil | October 25th, 2013

Have had the same issue. My solution is to use the tapped holes at the rear of the rack. Most taillights can be mounted in a horizontal fashion with a cage bolt. I have used this to mount 2 lights that blink at different rates on my Mukluk and my Fargo. Hope that helps you Becky ?

Becky | October 25th, 2013

Thanks Phil. I have to assume they meant for those rear vertical holes to be used for *something*, but I certainly didn’t spend $120 for a rack to have to jury-rig a light setup. I hope that Salsa will respond by supplying what I HOPE is the missing (but surely intended!) piece of hardware for mounting lights to this rack. Otherwise I may have to send it back and look elsewhere for a rack that will work—-because the only solution I can think of for this one is a piece of ugly angle iron attached via those two post holes on the back.

While searching for a solution to this issue I’ve stumbled across some other disk-specific racks that might work—-though they will no doubt wind up sitting higher thanks to those alternator dropouts I don’t need—-but I’m fuming at having to take a awesome bike and try to “make something work” for such a simple oversight on Salsa’s part.

Frank | November 9th, 2013

Does this rack fit a 2012 Al 9:Zero:7 frame?

Frank | January 19th, 2014

Does this rack fit a 2012 Al 9:Zero 7 frame? Bueller?

spencer | March 18th, 2014

15kg max weight… I want to do some serious touring on a 2014 fargo with front and rear panniers. What am I supposed to do with a 15km max weight on a rear rack?